OREGON!

Matt and I have arrived in Oregon for our long-awaited honeymoon! We left Lincoln on Friday around noon and drove to Andrew's parents house where we met Andrew and Amy who had graciously offered to drive us to the airport. We arrived mid-afternoon and were greeted by Andrew, Amy, Andrew's brother Thomas, and Andrew's parents Charlie and Judy. We chatted for awhile and then went for an early dinner at El Guapo - a tiny hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant about 10 miles from where they live. The food was wonderful!

After dinner we headed back and Andrew and Amy introduced Matt and I to a Nintendo Wii. Andrew's parents purchased one after playing Andrew and Amy's. We played golf, bowled, hit baseballs, played doubles tennis and then Matt and I boxed each other. The Wii is pretty incredible! The technology is amazing and I would be interesting to see what some of the other games are like. We tried to head to bed early Friday night, knowing that morning was going to come very early.

Our alarm went off at 3:15am Saturday morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:15 and we had about a 45 minute drive to the airport. It is one of my biggest fears to be waiting in line at security when my flight is leaving so I wanted to be there plenty early. We arrived at the airport, got checked in, had a little adventure at security (we forgot to remove our laptop from our carry-on so it got searched), and then relaxed a little before getting on the airplane. I spent most of the flight listening to my iPod and reading the Order of the Phoenix in anticipation of seeing the movie in the next couple of weeks. Our layover was in Salt Lake City so the flight was about 2.5 hours total. Flying into Salt Lake City was incredible. It seems like the airport sits a little bit out of town so we were able to get arial views of the lakes and landscape. GORGEOUS!! Our flight was a little early, which was nice because our layover was only 30 minutes to begin with. I grabbed a smoothie and we stretched our legs a little and it was pretty much time to get on the next plane. Our first flight was a regional airline so the plane was pretty small, but our second plane was large and more roomy. Our second flight also arrived early - about 25 minutes so we had good luck with our flights yesterday! We landed in Portland, got our luggage and jumped on the MAX (light rail system) to our hotel.

Portland is serious about their coffee - particularily Starbucks. Between the time that we got off the MAX and walked about 6 blocks to our hotel we walked passed three of them! Isn't that crazy?? We were not able to check into our hotel room yet as it was as about 10:00am Portland time and check in is a 3:00pm so we checked in our luggage and called Alice. We decided to head to the coast for the day since Matt and I would not be able to do that alone from Portland because we aren't renting a car until Tuesday morning. Matt and I headed over and grabbed a little lunch because it was lunchtime to our bodies and then relaxed a little in the hotel lobby until Alice, Nick, and Alice's roommate Larken came and picked us up. We all piled into the car and headed for the coast. The drive was beautiful - rolling hills and green everywhere. We passed many roadside markets selling fresh produce on our way - so cute! We arrived a Cannon beach which is a touristy town right on the coast and walked around for a few minutes and then decided we were hungry and drove to the southern, less touristy area of town to a brewpub for lunch. It took us a little over an hour to get to the coast so Matt and I were hungry again by this time because we had not really eaten that much before. The brewpub served awesome food! One thing I should mention is that it was about 65 degrees and overcast/rainy in Portland yesterday and cooler closer to the water. We were all wearing jackets the whole day which is a change for the month of July! The brew pub served clam chowder and had bean and ham soup and all of us had it except Matt. I had a meal that was 1/2 a salad. 1/2 a bowl of soup (so a cup of soup) and 1/2 a sandwich. I had the reuben and the ham and bean soup and it was delicious! We enjoyed some good conversation and some great food!

After lunch we drove a little bit farther south, parked the car, and walked about 1/2 mile down to the ocean. It was gorgeous! I'll try to post some pictures soon, but the Oregon coast is breathtaking. The water was cold so we just dipped our feet in, but there were about 100 people on this one little beach surfing. It appeared to be a great day for it and it was fun to watch them enjoy the water. The walk to the beach was gorgeous too - just green everywhere!

We decided to head back into Portland and as we were heading back into town the fog/clouds/rain burned off enough that we could see Mount Hood, which is quite a site! As promised, I will post pictures! Alice and Nick drove us to a point in Portland called Council Crest where you can look out over Portland. It was a beautiful evening and just unbelievable weather for July - although those from Portland seem to be disappointed that it isn't warmer and that it has been raining. Matt and I aren't disappointed at all - the cooler weather is a welcomed change from the heat of Nebraska.

We decided to grab a quick beer at a local brewery called Amnesia and then Alice, Nick and Larken dropped us off at our hotel. It was just before 10pm local time, but 2 hours later for us and we were pushing hour 19 of being awake. We checked into our hotel, retrieved our luggage and headed straight to bed.

We have woken up this morning well-rested and ready to enjoy a day in Portland! We are headed to "The Saturday Market" which is open on Sundays as well and will eventually be making our way to Alice's apartment tonight for dinner.